Last week, John Rampton, an entrepreneur, blogger and journalist published on Inc.com a list of influential investors. Most of these individuals are partners, associates or founders at some of the most successful Venture Capital firms in the world. It includes investors from the likes of KPCB, 500 Startups, Bessemer, DFJ, Greylock, Cowboy Ventures, etc. But it also includes angel investors and executives from corporations that invest both time and money in startups that will ultimately change our world.
This type of article is a dime a dozen — usually. But this one was different. It’s worthy of a big spotlight because John Rampton did something that so many journalists, editors and media outlets are failing to do daily.
Mr. Rampton’s list of 75 investors consists 100% of women. Better yet, gender is left out of the article almost entirely. He doesn’t talk about how these investors should be lauded because they are women. He doesn’t say they are the 75 best “women” in the industry. He simply says they’re BAMFs. Okay, actually he says “These are some of the top and most well-known investors not only in Silicon Valley but the world. I present them in alphabetical order (by first name).”
And then he goes into the list. An amazing list. An impressive list. A list of only women. A list that doesn’t focus on the things they’ve accomplished “despite being a woman” (as so many other articles do). It focuses on the investments they’ve made that are impacting the silicon valley startup ecosystem as well as the general global economy. He nailed it.
Why is John’s article important? So often, if publications write about successful women at all, the article focuses on the difficulties that women face in their industry as they climb the ranks to the top. We need to hold publications accountable for giving women and diverse individuals attention in the same neutral way they give white men attention.
It should be noted that we’re increasingly seeing articles that highlight female professionals’ success without focusing too much on gender related obstacles. Even so, it’s not nearly enough and the media industry can do better. They must do better if we plan to improve the gender imbalance that impacts so many industries.
Reducing the Noise.
A few months ago, I attended the Y Combinator Female Founders Conference where co-founder Jessica Livingston highlights that the media inflates the story around the challenges facing women. I’ve included the part I’m referring to below (you can see her entire talk here).
“There are some real obstacles women face as startup founders. But there’s just so much talk and noise on this topic that I worry it will scare potential founders away. Also, it’s so hard to sift through all this information and know what is accurate and what’s not. The conversation around this topic is too often driven by people who are not actually building things themselves.
And as with any other topic, the amount of attention that the press devotes to this issue is not determined by the size of the problem but by its potential to generate pageviews. Controversy generates pageviews so they write about controversy.
You don’t hear as much about the female founders who are quietly and successfully developing their companies. I don’t give a shit about pageviews. What I care about is how I can help support female founders. The way I do it is to encourage women to start startups and help them succeed once they do.
So while I’ll tell you that it is going to be harder for you as a woman. It’s not going to be so much harder that it will make the difference between success and failure. If you want to start a startup, go ahead and do it! And don’t let yourself be intimidated and distracted by all of the noise. All the news articles and the twitter controversy that it’s harder for you as a woman. That’s not only the best plan for your personally, but it’s also the best way to fix these problems.”
— Jessica Livingston
While Jessica focuses on female founders, the same can be said for just about any other industry. Women are kicking ass every day but they’re simply not getting the same amount of media attention as our male counterparts, leading to the impression that we’re not accomplishing as much as men. This misimpression can be discouraging.
John’s article in Inc. moved me in a really big way because it focuses on success without highlighting the impact played by gender. Sure, he was likely trying to make a point. In some ways, the list could have been similarly impactful if it had been 50% men — it is no secret that both men and women are making a positive impact in the startup ecosystem. Indeed, many of the people who are helping bridge the gender gap are men. They deserve to be given credit as well.
Even so, my point is unchanged. Ambitious women face challenges. Some of them are because we’re women. But most of them are because we’re trying to tackle giant amazing things that are simply really, really effing hard.
We’ve got this. We absolutely do. If you don’t think you do, come talk to me. I’ll help you see the light. But if we keep telling each other it’s hard because we’re women, we’re going to keep believing it. I don’t know about you, but being a woman is really the least of the setbacks I’m facing as an early member of an ambitious startup. At any given moment, I’m thinking about the challenges relating to recruitment, product development, finance, marketing, client acquisition. And then trying to balance it all with family, friends and sleep. So much to do. So little time. In case you’re wondering, my partner (a man) is facing similar challenges.
What’s next?
Let’s encourage journalists to write about the true stories of women without focusing so much on gender-related issues. We do this by voting with our clicks. Focus on sharing stories about hard work, dedication, determination, strategy, knowledge, etc. rather than just the ones about the gender imbalance in your industry.
Increasing the number of articles that feature (or even just mention) successful professionals who happen to be women likely means challenging journalists to diversify their interview pool. News articles are developed in much the same way as anything else in our world — through networks. If Joe Journalist is assigned an article on, say, “driverless cars”…he or she reaches out to their network and gets introduced to the right people until he or she finally lands on the best people to interview. If that network is mostly men, and then the second degree network is mostly men, then it’s logical to assume that the third and fourth degree networks are also mostly men.
Maybe I’m being dramatic but here’s my point: Journalists need to make an effort to reach beyond their existing network to find the subjects of their articles if they want to represent the true diversity of that industry.
I know they know how to do it because when these same journalists are tasked with writing the article on successful women they somehow manage to reach beyond their network and find plenty of subjects. Why wouldn’t they want to do this all the time? Indeed, many journalists are excellent researchers who go out of their way to get the whole story. But there’s so much more that can be done.
We still need to keep a spotlight on diversity and the lack thereof (there’s so much to do here). But we can achieve a much bigger goal if we highlight the successes of minorities, rather than the only the diversity-related challenges themselves.
Your turn.
Please share an article that features a successful professional woman without focusing mostly on gender. There are plenty out there (not enough) and we should share them.
Disagree with what I wrote? Write a response! More ideas can lead to better solutions.
